Dr. Kristen Gibson: tips on keeping COVID clean

The Division of Agriculture's Kristen Gibson knows a little bit about COVID-19 and
other illness-causing bugs. She's an associate professor of food safety and microbiology for the Arkansas Agricultural
Experiment Station, the research arm of the Division of Agriculture.

Here are a couple of videos where she talks about keeping safe for groceries and shopping.

Grocery Safety Tips

Food Delivery Safety Tips

March 26, 2020

Regulations keep take-out food safe from COVID-19, but precautions still important
during purchase; hand-washing essential even for those in isolation at home

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Food safety regulations protect take-out and delivered food from
COVID-19, but precautions remain important when interacting with food service personnel,
said a University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture researcher.

“There are specific requirements for sanitizing and disinfecting surfaces in the food
preparation environment that would inactivate the virus,” said Kristen Gibson, associate
professor of food safety and microbiology for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment
Station, the research arm of the Division of Agriculture.

Also, Gibson said, food service workers are supposed to wash their hands for at least
20 seconds with 10-15 seconds of vigorous scrubbing before and after performing specific
job duties. And employees who are sick, especially with gastrointestinal symptoms,
are not supposed to work for at least 48-72 hours.

“The key here is that the food is kept safe,” Gibson said.

Be Cautious

But precautions remain necessary when people meet people, she said.

“People still have to interact with the delivery people or folks at the restaurant
and COVID-19 can still be transmitted that way before people have symptoms or if they
are asymptomatic,” Gibson said.

The cleaning of surfaces is critical, Gibson said, because they are a key point for
transfer of the virus that causes COVID-19 from one person to another. Similar to
other viruses, such as those that cause the flu, the novel coronavirus can be deposited
on surfaces through aerosol droplets when someone sneezes or coughs. It can also be
deposited if someone sneezes or coughs into their hand and then touches a surface.

Gibson said there’s a possibility that the virus can be transmitted through feces,
but that possibility is not well understood. Some reports out of China and anecdotal
evidence from people who have been confirmed positive for the virus suggests that
perhaps 50 percent of cases present with some sort of gastrointestinal symptoms, like
diarrhea or nausea, even in the absence of respiratory symptoms.

“However, the amount of virus expelled in the feces is reportedly quite low,” Gibson
said, “maybe 1,000 viral particles per milliliter versus millions that are excreted
in respiratory secretions.”

In any case, once the virus is on a surface, susceptible persons may touch that surface
and then touch their mouths or noses, Gibson said. If the virus can then enter the
respiratory tract, a person may become infected.

A University of California, Los Angeles, study published March 20 suggested the COVID-19
virus survives on cardboard for up to 24 hours and on hard surfaces like plastic and
stainless steel for two to three days.

Gibson thinks the apparent difference in the virus’ survival time on different surfaces
may result from the sampling methods. To detect an infectious virus particle, she
said, it first must be recovered from the suspect surface.

“Recovery of viruses from soft surfaces is inherently more difficult than from non-porous
surfaces,” Gibson said, “so the difference in reported survival could be due to limitations
in the methodology.”

Wash Your Hands

Washing hands is the easiest and most effective way to protect yourself from COVID-19,
and Gibson said it is effective because of the structure of the virus.

“This is an enveloped virus which means it has an outer lipid layer surrounding the
protein capsid,” Gibson said. “Soap breaks down the lipid layer making the viruses
more susceptible to inactivation.

“The act of physically rubbing hands will remove the virus as well,” Gibson said.
“If you wash correctly, you should be able to remove hundreds to thousands of virus
particles.”

Antibacterial agents alone are not helpful, Gibson said, because they are specific
to bacterial pathogens and not viruses.

When selecting hand sanitizers, people should look for those labeled “antimicrobial,”
Gibson said. These will target more than just bacteria. These are not helpful against
all viruses, but they are effective against respiratory viruses like the COVID-19
virus, and for the same reason that soap works.

Isopropyl alcohol breaks down that lipid layer that protects the virus, rendering
it inactive. For that reason, Gibson said, alcohol-based hand sanitizers with more
than 60 or 70 percent alcohol help protect against COVID-19.

Stay Vigilant

Gibson said people who are isolating themselves at home and observing social separation
practices should remain vigilant about washing their hands, even though they are avoiding
other people and public places.

“Many infectious diseases can be transmitted by poor hand hygiene so it is always
good practice,” Gibson said. “Additionally, why not make handwashing a habit and work
toward true behavior change while isolated at home? This way when you do have to go
out, it will be second nature.”

The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s mission is to strengthen
agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption
of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative
Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work
within the nation’s historic land grant education system.

The Division of Agriculture is one of 20 entities within the University of Arkansas
System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on five system campuses.

The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension
and Research programs and services without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity,
sexual orientation, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran
status, genetic information, or any other legally protected status, and is an Affirmative
Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.